Stories of rescue and human kindness are everywhere around us. When it is situation-appropriate, I tend to talk about animals, be with animals, and wear rescue-themed clothes and accessories. These are excellent conversation-starters and thanks to them I get to hear many people's rescue experiences. Today, I'd like to share with you two inspiring stories I was honored to learn this week.
Earlier this week I took my car in for its 30k miles servicing. The regular person driving the dealership shuttle had called in sick, so another employee took me to work and back to pick up my car. Let's call this employee Kate. Kate is a sweet young woman, likely not more than 22 years old. She has a commute of about 75 minutes each direction. The reason why she moved to a smaller, more remote town? So she could provide her 4 rescued pets with a proper home that didn't have breed restrictions and would allow her to care for her dogs. Kate has 2 cats and 2 pit bull mix dogs. One of the pitties Kate literally found roaming the streets, scared and hungry. This doggie is like many rescues who've had a rough start in life: under-socialized, reactive in tense situations, distrustful of strangers. My own Julie is that way. But sadly people judge dogs differently on the basis of their appearance. My reactive 15-pound terrier mix is fine per the pet rules of my complex. Kate was unable to find a rental anywhere closer by that would allow a reactive pit bull. And yet everything tells me Kate is just as responsible and safe with her dogs as I am with mine.
So this young woman greatly altered her life in order to create a safe and welcoming place for her pets. She wakes up around 4 am so she has time to run and play with her dogs before she has to leave for work. Kate is aware that young, active breed dogs do best with exercise and is determined to give that to her pups. One of her doggies is more temperature sensitive, so Kate's project this fall is learning how to knit because she wants to be able to make him a sweater.
The second story comes from a woman my Mom met at the grocery store. Let's call this woman Susan. Susan is in her late 60s and happened to be in the pet care aisle of the store at the same time as my Mom and asked her for cat product recommendations. You see, Susan had acquired a new cat the night before. The cat used to belong to Susan's neighbors. The night before this chance conversation, Susan saw the kitty on the streets, picked her up, and knocked on the neighbors' door fully expecting that the kitty had somehow gotten out and the neighbor would welcome her back in. To Susan's dismay, the neighbor actually said that no, the cat hadn't gotten lost, they had "let her go". The reason, you wonder? The family had purchased a new red sofa set and the orange cat and orange cat hair was looking very ugly against the red couches. (Feel free to join me in wanting to punch those people!). So Susan took the kitty into her home. And the following morning she was at the store, getting kitty supplies for this unexpected but clearly welcome new member of her household.
Two such different rescue stories, yet so much love! Thank you, Kate and Susan, for having such big hearts! The world needs more people like you!
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